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Topic Review (Newest First)

01-31-2013 08:53 PM

JMex

Re: Fishless Cycle w/ Plants Question

Oh, I would do some root tabs and call it good then. I doubt you'll need anything more at all

Sent from HTC DNA

01-31-2013 02:35 PM

Hawkian

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMex

What plants do you have and what light level are you at?

I have 40 watts over a 30G tank which is considered pretty low. So I bought plants accordingly:

I'm failrly confident that the anubias and the java fern will be fine but I'm concerned about the echinodorus...

01-31-2013 05:01 AM

Django

I'm a fan of finding the root of the problem instead of just dumping chemicals that are only temporary solutions in your tank. I hear that one needs to balance the light, nutrients, and something else that I unfortunately can't think of right now.

01-31-2013 02:48 AM

hobos

I wouldn't recommend dosing excel unless your plants are in need of CO2 and you can't do DIY or pressurized. Excel will melt some plants (and is definitely harmful to livestocks in large amounts) and while spot treating bad algae breakouts or something like bba to thin it out is a good idea, it's better to fix the root of the problem instead of just dumping chemicals in your tank.[/QUOTE]

It helped me allot, diatoms will show up in a new tank plus the environment we have created while doing a fishless cycle is far from stable or balanced . I do find it helps when cycling using ammonia but it is your choice

01-31-2013 02:37 AM

JMex

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawkian

All right thanks for that.

Obviously the plants I have in there are all new so right now it's difficult to tell if they are in need of anything because they all still look pretty good

I'm only trying to anticipate what comes... if it comes.

What plants do you have and what light level are you at?

Quote:

Keep an eye on them is there are no signs of deficiency then no need to fertilize get a bottle of excel and double dose when you start seeing algae as long as there are no fish in the tank Iím not sure how double dosing excel will affect the fish

I wouldn't recommend dosing excel unless your plants are in need of CO2 and you can't do DIY or pressurized. Excel will melt some plants (and is definitely harmful to livestocks in large amounts) and while spot treating bad algae breakouts or something like bba to thin it out is a good idea, it's better to fix the root of the problem instead of just dumping chemicals in your tank.

01-31-2013 02:36 AM

Hawkian

Quote:

Originally Posted by hobos

Keep an eye on them is there are no signs of deficiency then no need to fertilize get a bottle of excel and double dose when you start seeing algae as long as there are no fish in the tank Iím not sure how double dosing excel will affect the fish

I've had a bad experience or two with excel and melting plants. I'm not going there again.

01-31-2013 02:33 AM

Hawkian

Quote:

Originally Posted by shift

How big is your tank and how much ammonia are you adding?

Tank is a 32G.
The ammonia I got is 5% pure ammonia (supposedly). I add enough on a daily basis to keep the levels at 5ppm. I am using the API test kit for ammonia. In my case, with a 32G, 10 ml of 5% ammonia got me the 5ppm levels I was looking for.

01-31-2013 02:25 AM

hobos

Keep an eye on them is there are no signs of deficiency then no need to fertilize get a bottle of excel and double dose when you start seeing algae as long as there are no fish in the tank I’m not sure how double dosing excel will affect the fish

01-31-2013 02:25 AM

shift

How big is your tank and how much ammonia are you adding?

01-31-2013 02:24 AM

Hawkian

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMex

I did a fishless cycle with plants and found the added ammonia was enough nutrients for me. I just added a little bit of Flourish Comprehensive every once in a while. But if you were seeing bad growth/obvious lack of nutrients in the plants I don't imagine anything bad happening from dosing.

All right thanks for that.

Obviously the plants I have in there are all new so right now it's difficult to tell if they are in need of anything because they all still look pretty good

I'm only trying to anticipate what comes... if it comes.

01-31-2013 02:23 AM

shift

i'm going to use it for shrimps but i generally do about half the recommended dose every once in a while... only once in the tank i'm cycling so far.. since its only been just under a weak.

01-31-2013 02:20 AM

Hawkian

Yup, heat is up there at 30C and the lights are on ~10 hrs/day. Do you use fertz at all?

01-31-2013 02:19 AM

JMex

I did a fishless cycle with plants and found the added ammonia was enough nutrients for me. I just added a little bit of Flourish Comprehensive every once in a while. But if you were seeing bad growth/obvious lack of nutrients in the plants I don't imagine anything bad happening from dosing.

Edit: Didn't see you just had playsand. I would probably throw some root tabs in regardless and dose water column if that's what you were planning on doing later on anyway.

01-31-2013 02:18 AM

shift

I have been leaving lights on 12/12 ish for the plants while doing ammonia dosing. It also doesnt hurt to turn up the heat to speed it up a bit.

01-31-2013 02:17 AM

Hawkian

I guess I should change my sig... there is no dirt. It's plain playsand.

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